The Orta mosque & The twin Hamam

1. The Orta mosque& The twin Hamam TsalouxidouStefania-Eleonora 6th grade, 3rd Primary School, Veria, Greece 2010-2011

2. The Orta mosque is the oldest one in town It is one of the most remarkable building of ottoman architecture in Veria. It was built in 1490 with porous stones and ancient and byzantine marbles.

3. The Orta mosque is in the center of the town, as its name intimates: Orta mosque means central mosque. Probably, it is about the SinanBey mosque. It is a simple, square building with a cupola.

4. The minaret has a very impressive motif that reminds us a stitchery and it consists of continual, successive rhombs. • In the base of the balcony, there are many stalactites. • The inner wall-panting decoration involves Koran’s texts and flowers.

5. During the First World War, the mosque offered hospitality to strange soldiers. • In 1938, it was declared as preservable monument. • Later, in different periods, it was used as a house, as a musical instruments’ workshop, as a marble workshop and as a carpenter’s workshop. • Today the building is in a bad condition even though it has been restored inside.

6. The twin Baths(Turkish Hamam)

7. In the center of the town there are the twin Baths of SinanTuzci (the old owner). • They were built in the late of 15th century and worked until 1930’. • They consist of two similar parts, the male and the feminine bath.

9. They are the only twin baths in which the male and the feminine part are involved together in the shape of a “Γ”. Both parts consist of three rooms: the bathhouse, the half heated room and the hot room in direct association with the furnace. They are double-decker with a brick cupola as a roof.

11. Inside the male bath you can see the mosaic and some vegetative motifs in the cupola. The male bath was bigger and had a richer decoration than the feminine one. • Since 1963, the twin Baths were preservable. • Today they work as a place of recording antiquities.